One was queen for a thousand days; one for over forty years. Both were passionate, headstrong women, loved and hated by Henry VIII. Yet until the discovery of the secret diary, Anne Boleyn and her daughter, Elizabeth I, had never really met.

Anne was the second of Henry's six wives, doomed to be beloved, betrayed and beheaded. When Henry fell madly in love with her upon her return from an education at the lascivious French court, he was already a married man. While his passion for Anne was great enough to rock the foundation of England and of all Christendom, in the end he forsook her for another love, schemed against her, and ultimately had her sentenced to death. But unbeknownst to the king, Anne had kept a diary.

At the beginning of Elizabeth 's reign, it is pressed into her hands. In reading it, the young queen discovers a great deal about her much-maligned mother: Anne's fierce determination, her hard-won knowledge about being a woman in a world ruled by despotic men, and her deep-seated love for the infant daughter taken from her shortly after her birth.

In journal's pages, Elizabeth finds an echo of her own dramatic life as a passionate young woman at the center of England 's powerful male establishment, and with the knowledge gained from them, makes a resolution that will change the course of history.

"Long before Philippa Gregory, there was Robin Maxwell, whose novel The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn changed the way readers perceived Henry VIII's second wife. In this dramatic retelling of Anne's life, Maxwell creates an historical fiction classic. But beware: this is truly addictive reading."

— Michelle Moran, author ofMadame Tussaud

"A daughter finds her mother's secret diary and what she discovers forces her to reassess everything she thought she knew. In the hands of Robin Maxwell, this inspired idea became an instant classic that has delighted and touched the hearts of generations of readers. The daughter is Queen Elizabeth I, the mother is Anne Boleyn, and the story is as ingenious, gripping, and deeply satisfying today as when it was first published. A must read for lovers of historical fiction-and all mothers and daughters."

—Susan Bordo, author of The Creation of Anne Boleyn

"History doesn't come more fascinating - or lurid - than the wife-felling reign of Henry VIII."

— Entertainment Weekly

"A wonderfully juicy historical novel so convincing that it's difficult to believe it is the author's
first...Maxwell brings all of bloody Tudor England vividly to life."

— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Maxwell knows her stuff. . . . In her treatment of Tudor's greatest tragedy, Robin Maxwell has gone where no man has gone before."

—Saria Kraft, Malibu Times

"Vivid and immediate, penned in the queen's own words, The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn intertwines Anne's tumultuous rise and fall with the early reign of her daughter, as Elizabeth struggles to assert her power. With a unique gift for bringing the past to life, Robin Maxwell catapults us into the hearts and minds of two women bound by blood and fate in the perilous intrigues of the Tudor court. The result is dazzling, historical fiction at its finest."

— C. W. Gortner, author ofThe Confessions of Catherine de Medici

"The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn was the first Anne Boleyn novel I read and it captivated me. I'm hard to please when it comes to Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I, but Maxwell brought these women and their stories to life beautifully. It's a book to keep and read again. A delight."